House of Commons barista earns more than a policeman

MPs are recruiting flunkeys to serve them luxury coffee… on a higher starting salary than police officers.

The pampered parliamentarians have advertised for four baristas, earning £20,173 a year for a 39-hour week.

The salary is 50 per cent more than the average pay in London for coffee shop staff, who commonly receive the minimum wage of £6.19 an hour.

It also tops the £17,500 a year that a soldier risking his life in Afghanistan will earn and is more than the £19,000 pay for police officers, whose salaries are being slashed to save cash.

Former soldier and Tory MP Patrick Mercer told Metro: ‘I don’t underestimate the skill involved in making a good coffee but if this is a fair wage for a barista then I think the wage of a soldier should be an awful lot higher.